Industrial, municipal and other large-scale water supply systems are known and used to provide potable and other types of water to cities, compounds, industrial processes and the like. In such systems, water may be drawn from a reservoir such as a lake, aquifer and others, for distribution to consumers. Drawn water is usually filtered and purified using various processes such as filtration, sedimentation, disinfection, desalination, as appropriate, and the like before being pressurized for storage and distribution. In certain applications such as for municipal water supplies where the water delivered to consumers is potable, additional treatments may be used such as chlorination, fluoridation, and others. One method to store useable, purified water is by use of elevated tanks. Distribution of purified water to and from the elevated tanks is carried out through a closed network of pipes and other fluid conduits to the consumers.
To draw the water for treatment from a reservoir, such as from a lake, a water treatment facility will typically use a pipe made from concrete, steel or ductile iron, that extends to a predetermined distance and depth into the lake from the shore. Pumps are used to pull or push lake water into the intake pipe, which is thus provided to a treatment facility for treatment and distribution as described above. Over time, dirt, debris, plant and animal material may collect within and around the exterior of the intake pipe. While material collected on a pipe exterior may not affect the water being carried thereby, collection of foreign matter within the pipe may affect the quality and quantity of water collected for treatment.
One measure of un-processed water quality that can be used to assess the quality of a water supply is turbidity. Turbidity is a quantifiable measure of the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by particles that can be suspended or dissolved in the fluid. While such particles may be generally invisible to the naked eye, in severe turbidity conditions, they may be visible to the naked eye and render the fluid cloudy. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of quality for water provided to a water treatment facility because increased turbidity requires additional filtration, sedimentation and other treatment processes to be used, which can significantly increase the cost to build and maintain a water treatment facility.
One challenge often encountered by water treatment entities, especially when above-ground water reservoirs are used to collect water for treatment, is that contamination of water intake pipes with foreign matter will tend to, over time, increase the turbidity of the water made available to the treatment plant. Because of regulated and environmental factors dictating strict standards for treated water supplies, an increase in water turbidity is an issue that is closely monitored and addressed. As can be imagined, to rectify an increase in turbidity in water supplied to treatment plants due to collection of foreign matter within the intake pipe requires a cleaning of the intake pipe. Presently known and used methods to clean such intake pipes can be quite complicated, expensive and/or not environmentally friendly, and can include cleaning processes, in which human divers or submersible devices traverse the internal portion of intake pipes to perform rigorous cleaning operation, the laying of new pipes to replace the old, soiled pipes. Additionally, known techniques for cleaning pipes having sensitive structures disposed therein, such as chlorine or bromine dispensers for municipal water plants, require that those structures be removed before a cleaning operation, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Other methods for pipe cleaning include sending shuttles, so called “pigs,” through the pipes to clean them, which requires that sensitive structures be removed from within the pipe. However, all these known methods are costly and can become complicated. Moreover, certain pipe systems, which may include sensors and other devices within the pipe, can only be cleaned by manual or chemical operations to avoid damaging any devices present in the pipe.